SOCIAL ENQUIRY
LAM Kwok-wah Male
CONDEMNED PRISONER
Religion: Nil
Native Place: Ng Wah, Kwangtung, China.
Age: 19 (The Prisoner and his mother claimed without
documentary proof that the Prisoner was born on 28th June 1954)
A. GENERAL INFORMATION
1.
His
The Prisoner was said to be born in Hong Kong. mother said that his birth certificate was lost. His father died when he was only two years of age. His mother had difficulty in making a living, she then re-married his present step-father a year later when they took him under the same roof. He has two younger half-brothers and a younger half-sister. His step-father and mother are by trade casual restaurant workers.
The Prisoner himself had no knowledge about the actual relationship with his step-father and treated his step-father as his natural parent. Their relationship at home could be considered as good.
Due to poverty, the Prisoner had to drop his studies and take up job at the age of fourteen when he attained only a primary five standard. At first, he worked as a restaurant kitchen attendant, later as a waiter. He handed back his wage packet each month.
However, later he was found associated with some dubious characters in the vicinity in his home and gradually he turned astray. Eventually, for three counts of robbery he was put on probation under the supervision of a probation officer for a period of two years on 16th April, 1971 with a condition to reside at the Kwun Tong Hostel, an approved institution for probationers, for six months. (Case No. K-3911/71 refers). His response to probation supervision was not satisfactory in that he failed to return to the Hostel since 5th July, 1971 and deliberately lost touch with his supervising probation officer possibly because he was subjected to the influence of his undesirable associates. A warrant for his arrest was subsequentlyissued by the court on 10th August, 1971 for his breach of the probation order.
On the 8th May 1972 he was arrested for a further offence of possession of offensive weapon for which he was sentenced to the Tai Lam Addiction Treatment Centre of the Prisons Department for compulsory withdrawal treatment with his previous probation order discharged. (Case No. NK15631/72 refers). He disclosed that he had taken opium after he left the Kwun Tong Hostel under the inducement of his associates.
/He